Conveyance of convicts beyond seas--Early abuses--Neglect and starvation on board--Large mortality--Question of command--Weak discipline maintained--Constant dread of outbreak--Military guard--Notable conspiracies--Barrington's conduct--Fears of mutiny groundless--Epidemic of scurvy on board the _Waterloo_--Loss of the _Waterloo_--_Amphitrite_ cast away at Boulogne--Arrangements for embarking convicts--Millbank stairs--Reforms introduced--Horrors of convict ships beyond description--Dr. Browning--His labours and influence over his charges. No account of deportation beyond the seas would be complete without some reference to the passage out to the antipodes, which naturally was an integral part of the whole scheme. From first to last many hundreds of ships were employed on this service. Those that composed the "first fleet" under Captain Phillip, R. N., in 1788, head the list; last of all comes the steamer _London_, which went to Gibraltar in November, 1871. The _London_ was the last prison ship that has left our shores. In the long interval between these dates the conditions under which deportation was carried out have varied not a little. Abuses in the earliest days were many and flagrant. As time passed there came all that was possible in the way of reform, and those charged with the execution of the system did their utmost to reduce the evils inseparable from it. But even to the last they were hardly obviated altogether; and this difficulty of carrying out under proper restrictions the removal of convicts by sea-passage to a distant land, is one--and by no means the weakest--of the many arguments against transportation.